16 November 2010 
The rapid pace of innovation in the electronics industry, combined with tougher environmental rules, has spawned an e-waste industry that is expected to treble to $15 billion in the next five years, report Reuters.
For the bigger waste management firms e-waste is still just a fraction of their solid waste portfolio, but many new comers are scrapping to grow in the business.
"It's a small portion of business, but could potentially grow over time," said Morningstar analyst Bradley Meeks.
Waste Management, the largest U.S. trash hauler, operates 200 e-cycling collection depots and aims to establish drop-off locations across the nation. Of the 8 e-cycling facilities the firm operates, three were bought in through acquisitions.
"We're looking to actively grow this business and we continue to evaluate both opportunities on the organic and the acquisition front," said Matt Coz, Waste Management's vice president of recycling services and marketing.
Waste Management recovered 12 million pounds (5.4 million kg) of e-waste in 2009, a tiny amount when set against the 125 million tons (113 million tonnes) of solid waste it handled, 8.5 million tons (7.7 million tonnes) of which was recycled.
At a time when China - which produces over 90% of the world's output of rare earths, used in lasers, superconductors, computers and much more - has played hardball over exports, there has been renewed interest in extracting precious metals from electronic scrap - so-called urban mining.
Metals recovered from e-waste range from gold, silver, copper and aluminium to rarer metals like platinum, gallium, indium and palladium.
The most precious metals are found in CPUs, mobile phones and servers, said John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), one the largest private e-cyclers, which recycles over 170 million pounds (77 million kg) a year.
"As the amount of rare earth declines and prices are high for traditional platinum metals, there's probably going to be a stronger desire to recycle things like computers and motherboards to get those metals," said Canaccord Genuity analyst Eric Glover. "Longer term, the supply of these metals will encourage additional recycling," he added.
Reuters claims that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), e-waste is the fastest growing commodity in the waste stream, with a growth rate five times that of other parts of the business such as industrial waste.
"The way we look at it is how quickly the waste stream is growing and how much more material will be diverted each year from the electronic waste stream," said Coz.
As e-cycling takes hold, manufacturers are buying into the concept of extended producer responsibility, says Larry Fisher, a research director at industry consultant ABI, and are engineering products to be more easily reclaimed or recycled at end-of-life.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly partnering waste management firms to handle defunct gadgets. Waste Management has such partnerships with Sony and LG Electronics, while ERI deals with Panasonic, Toshiba, Haier, Samsung and electronics retailer Best Buy.
Others, like Republic Services, are looking to forge closer ties with local municipalities for collecting e-waste. Either way, it's these are exciting times for the industry.
The rapid pace of innovation in the electronics industry, combined with tougher environmental rules, has spawned an e-waste industry that is expected to treble to $15 billion in the next five years, report Reuters.
For the bigger waste management firms e-waste is still just a fraction of their solid waste portfolio, but many new comers are scrapping to grow in the business.
"It's a small portion of business, but could potentially grow over time," said Morningstar analyst Bradley Meeks.
Waste Management, the largest U.S. trash hauler, operates 200 e-cycling collection depots and aims to establish drop-off locations across the nation. Of the 8 e-cycling facilities the firm operates, three were bought in through acquisitions.
"We're looking to actively grow this business and we continue to evaluate both opportunities on the organic and the acquisition front," said Matt Coz, Waste Management's vice president of recycling services and marketing.
Waste Management recovered 12 million pounds (5.4 million kg) of e-waste in 2009, a tiny amount when set against the 125 million tons (113 million tonnes) of solid waste it handled, 8.5 million tons (7.7 million tonnes) of which was recycled.
At a time when China - which produces over 90% of the world's output of rare earths, used in lasers, superconductors, computers and much more - has played hardball over exports, there has been renewed interest in extracting precious metals from electronic scrap - so-called urban mining.
Metals recovered from e-waste range from gold, silver, copper and aluminium to rarer metals like platinum, gallium, indium and palladium.
The most precious metals are found in CPUs, mobile phones and servers, said John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), one the largest private e-cyclers, which recycles over 170 million pounds (77 million kg) a year.
"As the amount of rare earth declines and prices are high for traditional platinum metals, there's probably going to be a stronger desire to recycle things like computers and motherboards to get those metals," said Canaccord Genuity analyst Eric Glover. "Longer term, the supply of these metals will encourage additional recycling," he added.
Reuters claims that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), e-waste is the fastest growing commodity in the waste stream, with a growth rate five times that of other parts of the business such as industrial waste.
"The way we look at it is how quickly the waste stream is growing and how much more material will be diverted each year from the electronic waste stream," said Coz.
As e-cycling takes hold, manufacturers are buying into the concept of extended producer responsibility, says Larry Fisher, a research director at industry consultant ABI, and are engineering products to be more easily reclaimed or recycled at end-of-life.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly partnering waste management firms to handle defunct gadgets. Waste Management has such partnerships with Sony and LG Electronics, while ERI deals with Panasonic, Toshiba, Haier, Samsung and electronics retailer Best Buy.
Others, like Republic Services, are looking to forge closer ties with local municipalities for collecting e-waste. Either way, it's these are exciting times for the industry.
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